The Economic Consequences of the Peace eBook

In the chapters of this book I have not generally
had in mind the situation or the problems of England.
“Europe” in my narration must generally
be interpreted to exclude the British Isles. England
is in a state of transition, and her economic problems
are serious. We may be on the eve of great changes
in her social and industrial structure. Some of
us may welcome such prospects and some of us deplore
them. But they are of a different kind altogether
from those impending on Europe. I do not perceive
in England the slightest possibility of catastrophe
or any serious likelihood of a general upheaval of
society. The war has impoverished us, but not
seriously;—­I should judge that the real
wealth of the country in 1919 is at least equal to
what it was in 1900. Our balance of trade is
adverse, but not so much so that the readjustment of
it need disorder our economic life.[157] The deficit
in our Budget is large, but not beyond what firm and
prudent statesmanship could bridge. The shortening
of the hours of labor may have somewhat diminished
our productivity. But it should not be too much
to hope that this is a feature of transition, and
no due who is acquainted with the British workingman
can doubt that, if it suits him, and if he is in sympathy
and reasonable contentment with the conditions of
his life, he can produce at least as much in a shorter
working day as he did in the longer hours which prevailed
formerly. The most serious problems for England
have been brought to a head by the war, but are in
their origins more fundamental. The forces of
the nineteenth century have run their course and are
exhausted. The economic motives and ideals of
that generation no longer satisfy us: we must
find a new way and must suffer again the malaise,
and finally the pangs, of a new industrial birth.
This is one element. The other is that on which
I have enlarged in Chapter II.;—­the increase
in the real cost of food and the diminishing response
of nature to any further increase in the population
of the world, a tendency which must be especially
injurious to the greatest of all industrial countries
and the most dependent on imported supplies of food.

But these secular problems are such as no age is free
from. They are of an altogether different order
from those which may afflict the peoples of Central
Europe. Those readers who, chiefly mindful of
the British conditions with which they are familiar,
are apt to indulge their optimism, and still more
those whose immediate environment is American, must
cast their minds to Russia, Turkey, Hungary, or Austria,
where the most dreadful material evils which men can
suffer—­famine, cold, disease, war, murder,
and anarchy—­are an actual present experience,
if they are to apprehend the character of the misfortunes
against the further extension of which it must surely
be our duty to seek the remedy, if there is one.